Department of Biology

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H. Jane Brockmann

Emeritus Professor

Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1976

Research Interests

I am an animal behaviorist interested in the evolution of alternative strategies and tactics and the economics and mechanisms of decision making in animals. In particular, I am studying the evolution of mating and nesting behavior of horseshoe crabs. I am also interested in sexual selection, mate choice, and paternal care, the evolution of sex ratios, the evolution of life-history patterns (e.g. emergence and diapause) and the evolution of social behavior (e.g. nesting behavior of solitary and social wasps).

H. Jane Brockmann Retires

Dr. Brockmann is the Department’s first faculty Emerita, and the first woman to retire from the former Departments of Botany and Zoology. We celebrated this auspicious occasion with a symposium featuring presentations from Dr. Brockmann’s former PhD students and a reception for the Department, Jane’s students, as well as her friends and coworkers (photos on the Biology Department webpage in the near future). Dr. Brockmann describes herself as “an animal behaviorist interested in the evolution of alternative strategies and tactics and the economics and mechanisms of decision making in animals.” She is a passionate scientist, educator and citizen of the academy and of her profession. She shares some of her history and accomplishments on this page, including a summary of her research, the diversity of service she’s done (for which she’s been recognized by the Animal Behavior Society with their Distinguished Service Award). To honor Jane’s commitment to graduate training, we have established a fund in her honor to support graduate research in the area of animal behavior. If you’d like to contribute to that fund you can do so at this link Please note in the comments field that the funds are for the H Jane Brockmann graduate research award.